Just around the corner….

A long walk with Meg across the park followed by breakfast took us till 11:00, when we untied and headed up Haywood Lock. Amy on Black Bryony met us at the lock, she’s moored just above waiting for mail.
Meeting her solved a problem for me; I was not looking forward to cutting those large lumps of tree with my old bushman saw. But she has (had!) an electric chainsaw that is surplus to requirements, so it was swapped for some of the wood. A satisfactory result all round!

After the lock we pulled onto the services next to the Anglo Welsh base, then, having done what we needed to, reversed back about 50 yards to turn under the bridge and onto the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.

Onto the Staffs and Worcs
About a mile further on, just at the end of Tixall Wide, we pulled in. This will do for the weekend.

Tixall Wide

I got stuck into the wood, cutting the rounds into shorter sections, then splitting them to fit in the fire. Got through maybe half of them, will get the rest finished over the next couple of days.
So now we’re proper liveaboards, wood on the roof, and a chainsaw in the locker!
Looking at the picture coming under the bridge, I need to get this wood away. Mags took it as I steered. If that's all she can see, I'd better get cutting, or else build her a box to stand on!

We’ve decided on a plan, of sorts, for this year.

We’re heading down the Staffs and Worcs to Autherley, then making our way steadily up the Shropshire Union, all the way to the Boat Museum at Ellesmere Port. If we time it right, I’ll get a car for a long weekend to go to Liverpool for the ½ marathon there at the end of March, and to Yorkshire for Mags to have a routine check up.
Then South, either using the Shroppie or the Trent and Mersey, through Birmingham and using the Stratford Upon Avon Canal to link up with the Grand Union. From there on to Oxford for the middle of May, for the race there.
After that we’ll probably spend a couple of months on and around the Thames, before heading North again via the Grand Union from Brentford.
Mags’ son, Neil and wife Val are coming over from Canada again, so they’ll be joining us for a week or so in August/September. We’ll maybe pick them up in Manchester, go up the Ashton and the Huddersfield Narrow, to the Calder and Hebble and on towards Leeds, heading up the Leeds and Liverpool after we drop them off.

Should be interesting. Canal Planner reckons from here to Castlefield to pick up our guests is 519 locks and 686 miles! Still, we’ve 7 months to do it in….

Locks 1, miles 1¼. I reckon we may have to do a bit better than that…